The Houthi group announced on Saturday that an Israeli airstrike in the capital Sanaa killed the prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi-controlled government, along with several other ministers.
Ahmed al-Rahawi perished in a Thursday airstrike during a meeting with fellow senior ministers. He is the most senior Houthi official to be killed since the start of the current escalation, which was sparked by the Gaza war.
The Israeli military stated it had struck a “Houthi terrorist regime military target in Sanaa, Yemen,” but has not yet corroborated reports of al-Rahawi’s demise.
A Houthi statement, which declared the deaths, indicated that the ministers had convened for a “routine workshop organized by the government to assess its operations and achievements over the preceding year.”
This attack coincided with the broadcast of a speech by Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the group’s enigmatic leader, on the Houthi-controlled television channel.
Since the commencement of the Gaza conflict, the Houthis have consistently fired missiles at Israel, characterizing these actions as expressions of solidarity with Palestinians, though the majority have been intercepted. In retaliation, Israel has conducted extensive airstrikes against Houthi positions in Sanaa and throughout the group’s controlled areas.
The Houthis, a faction supported by Iran that took control of the Yemeni capital in 2014, have previously withstood intense bombing operations.
The group’s seizure of Sanaa in 2014 triggered a devastating civil war against the internationally recognized government and a subsequent bombing campaign spearheaded by Saudi Arabia. The Houthis demonstrated exceptional resilience against that aerial offensive, which received U.S. backing, and which killed an enormous number of people.
Since then, it has been subjected to two separate bombing campaigns initiated by two consecutive U.S. administrations.
Joe Biden, the predecessor to Trump, initiated airstrikes against Yemen on January 10, 2024, citing them as a “direct response to unparalleled Houthi assaults on international maritime shipping in the Red Sea.”
These attacks did not succeed in deterring the Houthis and ceased only after a ceasefire agreement was mediated between Israel and Hamas in January.
The group recommenced its assaults when Israel implemented a blockade on the entry of food and aid into Gaza in .
Trump initiated his own bombing campaign in April with the aim of halting these attacks. These operations concluded when the Trump Administration reached an agreement with the Houthis in May to cease U.S. airstrikes, provided the group discontinued its assaults on shipping. This pact, however, did not encompass an accord to halt attacks targeting Israel, which have persisted.